Chapter 4

PLAYING TECHNIQUES IN SAMA GANA PERIOD

VEENA AND V E D A S

Though it is impossible to assign any particular time frame to the origin of

Vedas, it is said that the Vedas of ancient Hindus are at least four thousand

years old. Even so, they bear witness to an advance culture and civilization

with a long period of evolution and development before. Indian Music traces

its origin to the Sama Veda.

Lord Krishna says, "Of the four Vedas, I personify "Sama Veda". Narada

Muni says, "Brahma developed music with the help of Sama Veda". This

goes on to elucidate that our music arose from transcendental vision,

inspiration and genius.

The Vedas are known as 'Sruthi'- Eternal truths heard through intuition.

Music is but a subsidiary branch of Vedas. It is Naada Vidya, Science of

Sound. Its study leads to Nadopasana, self-realization, through

contemplating Naada. The Vedas of the Hindus are the earliest documents

known to man in the realm of higher thought and speculative philosophy.

Music, of course had a profound significance for Vedic scholars. They

enjoyed reciting spiritual verses in groups. Their reverence for sound as a

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manifestation of God and their instinctive sensitiveness to melody led them

to develop music as a branch of Vedas.

A great amount of reference about ancient Indian Music is found in Sama

Veda. The word 'Sama' means 'sweet note' or 'tune based on harmony'.

The Sama Veda is the Yoga of Song. It consists of various hynms of the Rig

Veda put to a different and more musical chant. Hence the text of the Sama

Veda is a reduced version of the Rig Veda. Its secret is in its musical

annotation and rendering. The Sama Veda represents the ecstasy of spiritual

knowledge and the power of devotion. The Rig Veda is the word; the Sama

Veda is the song or the meaning. The Rig Veda is the knowledge, the Sama

Veda its realization. Hence the two always go together like husband and

wife. The Rig Veda is the wife and the Sama is the husband.

'Sama Veda is suitable to be sung to the accompaniment of instruments,

both tonal and percussion.

The three instruments, Veena, Venu and Mridangam have been mentioned,

even from the Vedic times (more than four thousand years before). The other

instruments of the three categories are all of later origin. There are about

hundreds of instruments in each of the three categories.

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Veena is called the King of instruments, since it is believed to be the perfect

instrument, which is capable of producing music almost equal to that of

Vocal rendering. From time immemorial, Veena of all musical instruments,

is the most honoured and respected one. This may be the reason why the

Goddess of Learning, Saraswathi is depicted adorned with a Veena. She is

also called Veenapani.

Right from Vedic ages, Veena has been glorified to such an extent that it is

deemed as an incarnation of God. It rightly occupies the first place amongst

the celebrated 'Vadhya Trayam' - Veena, Venu and Mridangam. All the

delicate quartertones, the subtle nuances and the fine touches can be played

with accuracy on this instrument. The instrument is also mentioned in the

Sutras and Aranyakas. The Veena of the Vedic period had: -

Siras (head or neck)

Udara (bowl)

Ambhana (Sounding board or the belly)

Tantu or tantra (string) and

Vadana Kona (plectrum)

During Yajnas (holy sacrifice), the priest and the performer chanted, and the

latter's wife played the Veena called 'Audumbari', that is made of

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Audumbara wood. In another place, it is said that 'Picchola' was the Veena

played upon by the wife of the performer of the Yajna.

The word Veena seems to have been first used in the Vedas. In the

Ashwamedha sacrifice, the Veena was used as an accompaniment to chant

the mantras. The Vedas extol the Veena as "This, the Veena is verily the

embodiment of beauty and prosperity". Evidently, it was also played

particularly at dawn, for there is an anecdote in the Rig Veda, which goes

thus-

Once the demons imprisoned the Sage Kanva in a dark room and

blindfolded him. The condition for his release was that, without using his

eyes in any manner, he should be able to tell the coming of dawn. Hours

passed and then the Sage heard the gentle sound of the Veena and he knew

that day had dawned. He told his captors of course without revealing the

source of his information and he was set fi-ee.

The best known of the Vedic Veenas was the Vana or MahaVeena (the Great

Veena) of one hundred strings of Munja (grass) that was played with two

bamboo pieces. There were ten holes in the Danda of the instrument and

fi*om each emerged 10 strings, thus totaling a hundred. In later literature, this

instrument is generally equated with the Sata Tantri Veena, which means the

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'Veena with the hundred strings'. Some are of the opinion that the Vana

Veena might have been the prototype of the Kashmiri Santoor. Another

name found a similar instrument is 'Katyayana Veena'

The Veena that was played at the time of Sama gana was placed on the lap

or thigh, as it is the practice now, held by one of the hands and played with

the top of the thumb, and middle portion of the closed fingers of the other

one. The strings were touched by the fingers in such a way that the thumb

used to remain free fi*om the finger bases.

In the beginning, the Veena players used to utter Pranava, then the Vahruthi

and Savitri or the Gayathri mantra and finally the Vritta. In this process, they

used to adopt different kinds of vibrations at the time of playing Sama gana.

The Construction and playing method were similar to the Lyre and Harp of

the Western Countries. When they wanted to produce short sound, the

strings were given soft touches at the topmost part (Tilapramana) of the

thumb and half of the upper part of the middle finger and so on.

In the Rig, Yajur and Atharvana Vedas only three notes called Anudatta

(Nishadha), Swaritha (Shadjam) and Udatta (Rishabam) were used. But in

Sama ganam seven notes Ma Ga Ri Sa Ni Da Pa were used in the order of

descent (Avarohana). These notes correspond to the notes of Harapriya

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(Modem Karaharapriya). Subsequently, the full scale of Harapriya both

'Aarohana' and 'Avarohana' was developed. Thyagaraja, in his kxiti "Nada

Thanumanisam" defined the Sama Saptakam (sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni) of the

above notes.

The original monotonic recitation, known as Archika Gana, gave place to

Gathika or two toned chant. After a time Gathika was replaced by Samika, a

triad with a higher note, a lower one and a third sandwiched in between.

They were called Udatta, Anudatta and Svaritta respectively.

Soon, a fourth note, Prachaya, was introduced close to the Anudatta. Now

there was a tetra chord, Swarantara. It marked a step in advance of Samika

Gana. They were of three kinds: Deergha, Hrasva and Pluta. The notes of the

tetra chord were detached and unadorned. However, the chant promoted a

sense of unison. The Yajur Veda mentions the Veena as an accompaniment

to vocal recitation during sacrifices.

The Hindus of Vedic times unraveled a natural tetra chord of their own in

Ni-Sa-Ri-Ga with no other aid other than the ear. They inverted the four

notes and set up the nucleus for Sama Gana viz., Ga-Ri-Sa-Ni.

pie $eale of Sama Gana is the earliest scale of India. Simpler and primitive

scales pr&cedsd this scale. There were the Archika (scale of one note),

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Gathika (scale of two notes) and Samika (Scale of three notes), scales used

in very early times. The indication of Ekaswari gayana or Archika gayana

simply meant that the concerned passage was substantially sung to one note.

Similarly the indications - 'Gathino Gayanthi and Samino Gayanthi'.

The Rig Veda was recited to the three notes. Panini in his 'Vyakarana Sutra'

refers to these three Swaras as the Aadhi Swaras. And as mentioned earlier,

they were Udatta, Anudatta and Svaritta corresponding to Ri-Ni and Sa of

frequencies 10/9, 8/9 and 1 respectively, the Nishada being a note belonging

to the lower octave.

The stringed instruments of the lute (Veena) type and the harp (Jya) type

have been in existence side by side from the Vedic times. The Rig Vedic lute

had only two frets. Guts were tied on to the fingerboard around the Dandi or

arm to indicate the Swarasthanas- a practice that continues even now in the

case of the Svarabat. The open string gave the note Anudatta (nishada). The

first fret, the Svarita (Shadja) and the second fret, the Udatta (Rishabha).

This scale of three notes developed into a quadrotonic^scs^ by the addition

of Ga 32/27, a semitone above Ri. Since the length of tfie fingerboard was

small, pulling the Chanterelle string slightly from the Rishabha Swarasthana

produced this note. With the addition of Dhaivatha (5/6) below, the

pentatonic scale Gi, Ri, Sa, Ni, Da developed, still later, this developed into

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the heptatonic scale with the addition of Ma (4/3) above and Pa (3/4) below.

The scale of Sama Gana was a downward scale and Ma, Ga, Ri, Sa and Sa,

Ni, Da, Pa were perfectly balanced and symmetrical tetra chords, the

extreme notes of each tetra chord bearing the ratio 3:4.

Thus the Sama Gana scale may be regarded as a Madhyamaantya scale.

When Sa, Ni, Da, Pa was sung an octave higher, the idea of an octave was

perceived. The Sama Saptaka gave birth to the Shadja grama, the primordial

scale of Indian Music. The beauty of the Scale of Shadja grama lies in the

fact that it uses within it all the important and known musical intervals.

There was the Chatusruthi interval (9/8) between Ma and Pa; tissruthi

interval 10/9 between Sa and Ri and Pa and Da; the dvisruthi interval 16/15

between Ri and Ga and Da and Ni.

The Indian Music scale with seven notes of defined pitch was fixed more

than three thousand years ago. Three octaves were recognized even in that

distant past. It was also noticed that the notes in the second and third octaves

were twice in pitch compared to the fi-equencies of the notes of the preceding

octaves. The notes of the Sama Gana were styled the Sudha Swaras and the

other notes that received recognition from time to time were Vikrithi

Swaras. The note given by the open string of the Veena continued to the

Kaisiki Nishadha (16/9 - Suddha Nishadha in early nomenclature) till

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Bharata's time and there were frets on the fingerboard, for the remaining

Sudha Swaras. On the two stringed Veena, the second string was tuned to

the Madhyama of the lower octave and the notes, Da and Pa of the Sama

Gana were played on the second string. When the note given by the open

string was taken as Shadja and the remaining notes of the Suddha Swaras

Saptaka were played in the ascending order of pitch, the Shankarabaranam

scale was produced.

The Sama Veda was compiled from Rig Veda. Only about seventy five

verses were new. As if to complete the transformation from the plain Vedic

chant, Sama Gana was adorned with thrills and other graces - prenkhanna,

Vikara, Vikarshana, Vishesha, Virama, Abhyasa and Sivodotta. Also,

variety in intonation, mode of singing, and the objectives to be gained by

different rituals were reflected in the Gayatra, Vamadevya, Rathantara,

Sakwari, Nirukta, Anirukta, Apadhvanta and many other denominations of

Sama Gana,

Somayaga was an elaborate ritual - it called for days of preparation and

lasted for many days. It invoked the grace of Indra and other celestials.

Participants in it were allotted portions of the Sama Veda termed Bhaktis,

Seven in all - Humkara, Udgita, Prastava, Pratihara, Upadrava, Nidhana and

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Pranava. Melodies presented on such occasions had the sanctity of rituals.

So they were learnt and practiced to perfection. Otherwise the sacrifice

would lose its esoteric power and forfeit the benefits flowing from it.

Those who conducted these sacrifices rendered Sama Gana while their wives

accompanied them on the flute and the Veena. Some sacrifices had specific

melodies for the different parts of the day. The Yagasala (the venue of the

sacrifice) resounded with the sonorous chanting in the Mandhara Sthayi, the

lower register, in the early hours of the morning, in the middle register at

daybreak and in the higher octaves thereafter.

Several kinds of Veenas are mentioned in Vedic literature. The 'Alabu

Veena', the 'Vakra Veena', the 'Kapisirsha', the 'Maha Veena', the 'Chala

Veena' etc. There are also references to special types of instruments for

women. The 'Picchola' and the 'Kanda Veena' are two examples.

The 'Taittiriya Samhita' gives a fiill description of the Veena. It is brightly

painted and studded with precious stones. The belly of the instrument is

covered with red leather, and has ten holes to which the strings, of twisted

darbha grass or Munja are fastened. The stem is made of wood.

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In the end of the Vedic period, some of the renowned sages wrote a few

books called 'Sikshas' and 'Pratisakhyas' detailing the rules of grammar

involved in Vedic Literature in respect of its language and music so that the

purity of the original Vedic Literature is not mauled by raw and immature

pundits. The first of its kind can be found in 'Naradiya Siksha' supposed to

have been written in the 5* Century B.C. 'Naradiya Siksha' deals mainly

with the musical notes and the pronunciation of the words in the Vedic

language. Vedic language contained 16 vowels and the 'Naradiya Siksha'

gives the details to maintain the Sonorousness of the language.

According to Naradiya Siksha, Sama Gana used to be performed by a

combination of vital musical elements comprising of-

> Seven notes (Saptha Swaras)

> Three gramas (Shadja, Madhyama and Gandhara grama)

> Twenty one Murchanas (scales) and

> Forty-nine Tanas.

Names of the seven notes mentioned therein were -

• Prathama (first)

• Dvitiya (second)

• Tritiya (third)

• Chathurdha (fourth)

• Mandra(low)

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• Krusta(loud)

• Atiswara (too loud)

In Yajnavalkya Siksha the name of the seven notes were given as SA-RI-

GA-MA-PA-DA-NI that belong to the 'Gandharva Veda'. During that

period the Rishis in the ' Aranya Gana' used all these notes.

Ideas of music are not static. Sama Gana is no exception. Narada, Panini,

Yagnavalkya and other celebrated writers on music, developed it as an art.

They wrought a synthesis between philosophy, psychology and aesthetics.

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